Summary: Get Your Light Right: Set Your Internal Clock to Avoid Health Hazards Episode 37 by Niki Wilson (Click here to directly access the MP3) (Access the full text transcript) For most of our evolution as a species, humans wandered the earth in sync with the light/dark cycles created by the sun and the moon. This relationship has shaped the formation of our body chemistry and physical make up. Our bodies adjust to daily and seasonal changes in light through physiological adaptations. Awareness of light (and dark) and the time of day when we are exposed to light (and specific wavelengths of light) can have a dramatic effect on our well being and directly impact our internal clock. Listen to the Podcast to learn more… For more information: Holzman, David. C. What’s in a Color? The Unique Human Health Effects of Blue Light. Environ Health Perspect. 2010. January; 118(1): A22–A27. Lam RW, Levitt AJ, Levitan RD et al. The Can-SAD study: a randomized controlled trial of the effectiveness of light therapy and fluoxetine in patients with winter seasonal affective disorder. 2006. Am J Psychiatry, 163, 805-812. Reeves, Gloria M. MD et al. Improvement in Depression Scores After 1 Hour of Light Therapy Treatment in Patients With Seasonal Affective Disorder. Journal of Nervous & Mental Disease: January 2012 - Volume 200 - Issue 1 - p 51. Partonen, T. (ed) and S.R. Pandi-perumal (ed). Seasonal Affective Disorder: Practice and Research. Second Edition. 2010. Oxford University Press. 352 pp. Niki Wilson is a science writer living in Jasper. She hails from an environmental science and biology background, but traded the field for the computer screen. She writes a regular column, On Science, for the Jasper Fitzhugh, and podcasts for Parks Canada and Experimental. She has freelanced for the Canadian Science Media Center, and is an affiliate of the Banff Centre Science Communications Program. See more of her writing at www.nikiwilson.com.
